Thoughts on the military and military activities of a diverse nature. Free-ranging and eclectic.

Monday, July 24, 2017

Mad Max.

This is coolbert:

"If this is the end, then what was it all worth?

Don't bother to ask, there's no price on this earth"

Sailors of the British Royal Navy [RN] hardly the only case and not alonein suffering from PTSD, madness and a high-rate of suicides. Even during much more modern times the rigors of naval warfare and extended periods of life at sea hazardous to your health even when not in combat! Thanks to Deviant Art and Wuthering Heights for the image and quotation.

AMONG THOSE RUSSIAN SAILORS OF THE BALTIC FLEET [RENAMED THE SECOND PACIFIC SQUADRON FOR THE MISSION] EN ROUTE TO DESTRUCTION AT TSUSHIMA THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STRESS FOR A PROLONGED PERIOD UNDER LESS THAN DESIRABLE CONDITIONS SO GREAT AS TO PRODUCE EXCESSIVE MADNESS AMONG PERSONNEL!

"It was a voyage that literally drove some of the participants insane. The ships of the Imperial Russian Navy were never intended to serve as residences over a period of seven and a half months. Poorly ventilated, rat-infested, filled with coal dust from stockpiles heaped in every available space, each one became its own self-contained hell."

"Men began to go mad. An old acquaintance of Politovsky’s [fleet's Chief Engineer] wandered about the boats half-undressed, asking people if they feared Death. Eventually Rozhestvensky [ Rear Admiral that most senior Russian commander] collected an assortment of misfits to ship back home through the Suez aboard the 'Malay'—lunatics, drunkards, invalids, men imprisoned for mutinous acts. As the 'Malay' departed the harbor, a group of mutineers seized control of the ship—but an armed crew went aboard and restored order. Some of the worst were simply put ashore and abandoned to fate."

PROLONGED PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STRESS WITHOUT AMELIORATION AT BEST RESULTING IN DEBILITATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND AT WORST CAUSING MADNESS!!